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From: huopio@lut.fi (Kauto Huopio OH5LFM)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Finland Direct (Some Problems)
Message-ID: <9624@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Jul 90 20:06:06 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 476, Message 4 of 11


In article <9579@accuvax.nwu.edu> lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen)
writes:

> >When I call either of these numbers, I reach a tone _in_Finland_ that
> >I am not familiar with, but it may simply be a "please wait" tone.  I
> >suspect the problem is with the grade of service provided by the
> >operators in Finland.  The tone is roughly 500ms of 950 Hz, 250ms of
> >950 Hz, 1.5 sec of 1400 Hz.  After a long time of no revenue due to no
> >answer, AT&T gives up and says "Your call cannot be completed at this
> >time in the country you are calling."  On MCI it eventually times out
> >to a reorder (120 interruptions per minute).

> The description of the tone sounds suspiciously like the European
> reorder signal. It consists of three tones of a rising pitch, somewhat
> similar to the "Special Information Tones" used by ATT.

No, this is NOT a reorder signal. It is a queue tone!! If you have
tried these numbers at, say 3pm in USA, it is around 9-11pm here.  So
at that time the number of international operators is VERY low, and
even I may have to wait for operator about 1-2 minutes.  Why do we
have so few operators? Where we would need them? We have International
Direct Dialing to every place in the world that has some kind of
automated phone systems (Soviet Union goes okay!!), and we make quite
a small number of collect calls.

BTW: one other interesting telecom matter: Finnish PTT has plans to
allow calls TO payphones! But they have planned to give 9700-numbers
to them (Finnish Value Added Service-numbers.. Yes, we have 9800..)
This means at least 50 cents/minute extra to the normal call. :-(


****************** Kauto Huopio (huopio@kannel.lut.fi) **********************
*US Mail: Kauto Huopio, Punkkerikatu 1 A 10, SF-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland * 
*WARNING! We have holiday season here, so be patient with my answers..      *
*****************************************************************************